Anneke.Net > Adolf Loos > Notes and Images: A Commentary on Loos' Work

This page contains 37 selected images from Loos' work, accompanied by corresponding commentary. Select a link in the following index to move directly to a particular portion of this page:
Links Grouped By Theme Zentralsparkasse Mausoleum Loos' Apartment Cafe Museum Kaerntner/American Bar Moller House Mueller House	Strasser House Villa Karma Duschnitz House Michaelerhaus/Looshaus: The Goldman & Salatsch Building Horner House Scheu House Staircases

Links Grouped By Theme

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Zentralsparkasse (1914)

This image has been removed in order to prevent copyright violations. For more information on this topic, please see the indicated book cited in the texual description, either in your local library or bookstore.

Schezen, 101. The top portion of the plaque is a quote by Loos, the architect of the Zentralsparkasse bank located at Mariahilferstrasse 7, Vienna 7, in Vienna, Austria. The quote is roughly translated to read "The bank building must say, "Your money is firmly and well-coffered here with honest people." Loos believed in building through conception to to acheive the proper perception: the surroundings must speak to the guest or resident in the manner it requires, according to its function.

Gravagnuolo, 155. The interior of the Zentralsparkasse bank exemplifies what Loos attempted: the bank appears as a fortified and honest place, inducing the customer to entrust his collateral to this financial institution. As seen further below, Loos used circular or spherical (often chain-suspended) light fixtures (seen in the Villa Karma, Scheu, Horner, and Mueller houses), copious marble, and the grid of cubes on the floor, ceiling, and even in the upper portions of the walls, the mirrored centers matching the glass ceiling. The high mirrored portions are similarly used in the Michaelerhaus and the Kaerntner Bar.

Rukschcio. A portion of a Zentralsparkasse ceiling, providing an example of Loos' frequent use of a grid of squares sometimes including a circular central point. This type of ceiling is also found in the Dutschnitz House, and the cube-surrounded-circle is also found in the Villa Karma.

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Mausoleum (1921)
	Gravagnuolo, 170. This mausoleum was modeled for Dvorak, and is Loos' only designed piece of architecture from the realm of tombs and monuments. Because of their exclusive realms of influence, Loos considered art and architecture to be completely independent of one another, with only the tomb and the monument as permissible exceptions, since only they contained the ability to combine functionality with the arousal of emotion.
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Loos' Apartment (1903)
Gravagnuolo, 102. The renovated living room of Loos' apartment, located at Giselastrasse 3, Vienna 1. Notice the use of false beams (found in much of his work) both across the main room left to right and in the rear alcove by the fireplace, running front to back. The shelves along the rear wall are of marble, often used by Loos.
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Cafe Museum (1899)
	Gravagnuolo, 95. Positioned in the vicinity of the Haus of Seccession, the manifesto of the viennese Art Nouveau movement, the Cafe Museum was something of an attack against J. Olbrich, affiliated with the Haus and corresponding movement (Gravagnuolo, 95), and was considered to be more akin to Otto Wagner's style (a fellow Viennese architect greatly admired by Loos). Note the cylindrical center with functional yet plain (Loos sometimes designed furniture as well) furnishings, as well as circular tables to the right and square furnishings to the left.
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Kaertner (or 'American') Bar (1907)

Schezen, 55, and also Gravagnuolo, 119. The Kaerntner Bar, or American Bar, uses many of Loos' reoccuring materials marble and mirrors, the latter often placed in unaccessible locations but creating an allusion of greater percieved space. The Kaerntner bar is an excellent example of Loos' noteworthy stepped pyramid. Supposedly the most perfect shape, he has taken after his idol and fellow architect Otto Wagner in his utilization of the cube, here in increasingly smaller sizes as the stepped pyramids ascend further into the ceiling. As an intriguing sidebar, it is interesting to note that the bar had earlier displayed a photo-montage of Loos' friend Altenberg in far wall, obviously different than the picture shown here.

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Moller House (1927-28)
	Rukschcio, 384, Kat.188. Hans and Anny Moller's house, at Starkfriedgasse 19, Vienna 18, provides us with an example of Loos' Raumplan, which was originated with the Steiner House in 1910 (Safran, 11), and is defined as "a system of proportional relationships specific to each spatial condition" by Schezen (56). In true Loosian form, note the use of oriental rugs, parquet floors, extensive use of wood paneling, and the seemingly drastic drop from the dining room to the music room seen at left, such drops being fairly common in Loos' work.
Safran, 66. This view of the dining room from the music room provides an example of Loos' preference for varied levels, showing the large discrepancy between the two rooms. At first glance, it seems awkwardly insurmountable, but the rooms are seperated by a sliding door and folding steps in the divide between the two rooms.
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Mueller House (1930)

Safran, 76. In contrast to the Moller house, the Villa of Dr. I. Frantisek and Milanda Mueller is his Raumplan in its most developed state (Schezen, 148). A view of the room taken towards the entrance from the stairway, notice the stepped terrace along the ascending stairs, the wood, simple spherical lighting, use of marble, oriental rugs and marble pillars, as well as the built-in furnishings, part of Loos' desire for completely functional surroundings.

Rukschcio, 387. Kat 194. To the left is the dining room, to the right the Damenzimmer. We can see the columns and marble more clearly, the use of cubes and right edges, as well as the wood inlay of the parquet floors.

Schezen, 151. This view shows us the corner of the living room, where one might go right up the stairway or left to the next half-level. Again, note the frequent usage of the cube and austere decorations, lacking any worthless, tacked on ornamentation that might detract from functionality or obscure the structural material.

Schezen, 148. The circle emerges as a more dominant shape in the Mueller House dining room, accented by the connection between the the table as the central focal point of the essentially square room, and the circle suspended from the ceiling just below the four lightbulbs, centered over the table. The living room can be reached by descending the stairs to the right, and following his Raumplan and trademark usage of midlevel floors, can ascend to the next full level upwards as well. The ceiling is again a dark grid pattern.

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Strasser House (1918-1919)
	Safran, 23. The Strasser House's raised music room is a beautiful example of Loos' work, encompassing almost all of Loos' signature materials or themes. For instance, note how the music room is only half a level above the lower room.The parquet floor with the standard covering of oriental carpets; the column, made of marble; the plain ceilings. Very simple yet exceedingly elegant as well, and makes one think of the Wagnerian influence, which would encourage only a skin-like decoration, such as the plain but organized floor and mildly etched walls, rather than something heavier. Nothing is overly ornate, yet the material itself is beautifully used.
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Villa Karma (1904-1906)

Schezen, 48. A view of the exterior of Villa Karma, showing the usage of the cube form in the front and left corners and the spherical top of the right back corner. A simple facing with no additional ornamentation, and also the frequent use of columns and pillars. Although Loos worked on the Villa Karma, located in Clarens, Switzerland, from 1904 to 1906, he left mid-renovation after a disagreement with the owner.

Schezen, 47. Another view of the Villa Karma, we can see the arches leading into the portico pictured below on the left side of the structure. Notice the curved sceme of the cylindrical portion central to the image, as well as the curve of the arches. In addition, the symmetry of the lawn, matching staircases, and unornamented windows in even rows along each floor, as well as the grid to the left and pillars as vertical lines on each edge.

Schezen, 49. Again the grid, cube pattern is prominently seen on the ceiling of this portico of the Villa Karma. The arches seen at the back and to the right facing outside are frequently used in this structure. The table of marble, geometrically fitting with the simplicity of the surroundings and the rectangular shapes indicated in the ceiling and two doors at the far end.

Schezen, 40, and Gravagnuolo, 113. The first-floor bathroom in Loos' Villa Karma utilizes all the standard Loos materials and commonly used architectural methods, such as dark wood, marble, and the marble columns. Characteristic of Loos is the simplicity of the decor in contrast to the richness of the materials.

Gravagnuolo, 110. Metal-studded double doors of the first-floor bathroom opening onto a veranda.

Schezen, 30. Taken from the second floor (seen below) of the Villa Karma, we may look down into the entrance hall. The checkerboard pattern, metal doors and oft-used circular theme reoccur here. The use of geometric shapes is particularly prominent here in his Villa Karma building.

Gravagnuolo, 111. Showing a portion of the second floor of the Villa Karma, the circular railing looks down onto the entrance hall, as seen above. Notice the grid pattern almost everywhere in this picture, on the ceiling, the far wall both on the windows and the wall panels, and in the glass in the doors, matching the opposite wall. The vertical bars of the circular railing meld with the vertical lines of the surrounding room, and again we have found a circular center to a surrounding cube.

Gravagnuolo, 106. This vantage point shows the same entrance to the Villa Karma, but from within the cylindrical entrance hall: note the marble wall facing.

Gravagnuolo, 114. The Spiesezimmer, or dining room, of the Villa Karma, is a bit austere, like most of Loos' work, but fits well with the portico pictured above. Again, Loos uses columns and circular lighting fixtures, and we see another example of the striking checkerboard patterned in the floor, as seen in the ceiling of the portico above and the floor of the Villa's entrance hall. With the dark, monochrome ceiling and the patterned floor, it is almost a reverse of the portico viewed above. Loos also created built-in furnishings as part of the architectural structure, noticable here as the shelves set into the far and right wall.

Schezen, 43. The library of the Villa Karma, we notice the simple yet expensively interior decoration, which supplements the perception of elegance. Note the reoccurring grid pattern of the ceiling, oriental rugs, marble floors and bookcases, the latter, on both right and left, being built into the walls.

Gravagnuolo, 110. The wardrobe hall of Villa Karma. The most prominent and characteristic scemes are found in the curve of the staircase, the dark wood, rectangular shapes in the doors along the left wall, and the false beams running horizontally along the ceiling. It is also strikingly similar to a room in the Scheu House.

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The Duschnitz House

Rukschcio, 378. The entrance hall of Willibad Duschnitz's house: marble floor, the grid pattern surrounding the doorway, and then again behind the first doorway before ending the far room (with the fireplace), as well as the black-outlined grid floor on both the lower hallway and upper landing, a reverse image of the white-lined, dark-cubed ceiling of the portico. The white marble stairway is sided by the stepped-terrace theme ascending towards the higher level.

Schezen, 116. The dining room of the Duschnitz House, with unornamented ceiling, and the usual wood floor, dark wood dining room table, oriental rug, and shelving built into the marble wall. Although it may seem a bit overdone, there is very little added by means of decoration: rather, the impact of the room stems from the richness of the materials, not superfluous ornamentation.

Rukschio, 379. A view from the music room to the dining room, seen from the opposite end as from the above image. Notice the false wood beams in the ceiling, also common in Loos' work. Points of interest are again the oriental rugs in the hallway, the marble by the doorway, the glass above the door divided into the grid of squares, double doors, and the intricate parquet floor, again with cubes and circular centers, a theme scene in the Zentralsparkasse ceiling and in the ceiling shown below, elsewhere in the house.

Schezen, 117. Like the grid of in the above hallway or the ceiling of the Zentralsparkasse, we once again see the collection of squares with some sort of central circular focal point within each block. The cube theme continues here in the Duschnitz House.

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Michaelerhaus (or Looshaus)
The Goldman & Salatsch Building (1909-1911)

Wagner-Rieger, Tafel 81. The Goldman & Salatsch department store. Along the Ring, the ground floor of any building was often used as a shop, the new two floors as commercial office space, and floors ascending from that point alloted as residential levels. Noticed the utter lack of decoration on the building (other than the windowboxes Loos was forced to put in place by those in charge of zoning, etc.)-- Loos was criticized for the simplicity of the building, in that the it seemed to be out of place, in conflict with the surroundings.

Schezen, 61. Haus Goldman & Salatsch, Foyer. Now the foyer of an apartment building, I believe, it continues with the mirrored sceme to invoke a perception of increased space, as well as the now-recognizable ceiling with the grid of squares, best seen in the reflection at the far end of the picture. The marble-clad walls are very Loosian as well, especially as the dark wood bordering the door links to the rectangular border on the floor.

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Horner House (1921)

Schezen, 94. This light fixture in the Horner house is an ideal example of the frequency with which Loos used circular themes in his interior lighting, as is seen further above in the Mueller House, among others, and below in the wardrobe hall of the Scheu House.

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Scheu House (1912-1913)
Gravagnuolo, 148. Dr. Gustav and Helene Scheu's house displays the stepped terrace sceme often found in Loos' work: here, it can be seen both in the house itself from floor to floor and in the steps leading up to the entrance in the side of the second floor. This terraced step is also seen in the Dutschnitz House and in the living room of the the Mueller House.
	Gravagnuolo, 146. This room (cited as the dining room, I believe) in the Scheu House is similar to the wardrobe hall in the Villa Karma, with a staircase bending around after three or four steps and the false beams overhead, and the vertical bars of the staircase are akin to those in the railing above the entrance hall of the Villa Karma. The circle of suspended lightbulbs solidifies the circle-sceme of light fixtures also present in the Horner House above as well as in the dining room of the Mueller House.
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The Staircase Theme
Gravagnuolo, 143. Although not confined to any one house or renovation project by Loos, these three examples of staircases show how simplicity and functionality mesh to create an intriguing structural and aesthtetic effect. This staircase is from Leopold Goldman's mansion, Hardtgasse 27-29, Vienna 19.
	Gravagnuolo, 144.
Gravagnuolo, 144. Both this picture and the one adjacent depict the same staircase from different views.